I think I felt it
Unfortunately, ‘Pardon Us’ was the first Laurel and Hardy feature film and not the best choice for most people who are not huge fans. It watches like a bunch of shorts thrown together with other things (Ollie singing, Laurel dancing) tossed in there to pad out the time.
If it was compacted into about half the time, it would probably be a lot better. L&H just didn’t have the pacing for a feature..If you are going to watch old films, you have to develop the ability to look at something that has been imitated to death with new eyes. And it isn’t easy. It also doesn’t help that audience expectations were lower; Pictures! That Move! pretty much sums up the public reaction to early films.
Many films are revered because they are the first example of something we now take for grated, and which has been done better thousands of times. Despite the cliche about remakes and sequels, such films often do improve on the originals.
The best of Laurel and Hardy, in my opinion, are the films in which they are two well intentioned fools in the middle of a larger issue. You watch them solemnly listening to their instructions, knowing full well that not one single syllable is sticking, and then they go out and they couldn’t screw it up worse if they TRIED.
But not all “greats” are for everybody. Personally, I can’t STAND Charlie Chaplin. I can see that he had a species of genius .... I just want to kick him in the seat every time I see him use it. Maybe L&H just aren’t your cuppa.
Posted by neyland_tarr
03/12/2011 at 07:51 PM
Pictures That Move
Good point and sums things up with regard to lots of movies in that era.
L&H I think are best seen on YT in short clips for all the reasons given above. I was never a huge fan, and nave liked Chaplin btw. I could never understand his appeal.
BUT ...
I believe Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton will last forever. I can laff just thinking about those two.
Would love to have seen The Marx Bros. in their heyday on Broadway in the 20’s. Altho Groucho was always the favorite and couldn’t stand Harpo.
Whyaduck?Damn good point Drew re. the conditioning. Have been very aware of that for yonks. Don’t know if spelled correctly but that’s Brit speak for a Very Long Time!
Too bad you aren’t writing reviews over here. Good post.whoops ... that’s why there is a review before posting.
That should read ..Have never liked Chaplin
I am also of the group that never really understood the appeal, and has never liked Chaplin. Harold Lloyd, Fatty Arbuckle, The Marx Bros are high in my esteem. The 3 stooges, it depends on the short. I liked Harpo, but Chico always drove me to distraction.
I think it has a lot to do with polishing on Broadway and in Vaudeville.
Oh well. If we all liked the exact same things, the world would be a boring place indeed..Ha, serves me right for writing such an excessive preamble. No, the film wasn’t all that great, and yes, I understand that this was from the early days and can thus cut it a huge amount of slack. I don’t know if what I saw was remastered or not, but the sound quality of the singing was first rate. At least by 1931-32 that part of “talkies” was figured out pretty well.
What I was really trying to write about was the plantation scene and my instant reaction to it, and then my analysis of both my reaction and the scene itself. Society has done it’s best to build a hair-trigger “racist” reaction button into us, and that was my point.
Could Pardon Us have done without this scene, or cut it down to just a minute or two, or substituted any other farm? Probably. But my secondary point was that this whole bit was not in itself racist. It was funny. And in the 80 years since we’ve lost that awareness. Were other blackface routines actually racist? I’m sure some were. This one wasn’t.
03/13/2011 at 06:33 AM
